While media attention focuses on the military and humanitarian aspects of the war in Ukraine the huge implications for multinational corporations get very little attention. Two major themes stand out here. First, many companies will be swept up in the impassioned media stories of the war and overlook the more fundamental need for a disciplined assessment of political and social risks. Most companies want to do the right thing. But without a careful evaluation they will be sucked into the emotional and political hysteria that often comes with political and social conflict.
The second theme is the precedent that companies pulling out of Russia has established. Getting out of Russia is pretty much of a clear cut case. It's an easy call for many reasons. Future political and social risks won't be so stark. They'll be a lot more complicated. Should multinationals come clean on their ties in China? What about Hungary? Israel? What about African nations? Outside critics argue that pressuring companies to get out of Russia shows that shaming businesses is a high profile tactic for their other political and social projects.
In the face of these major points we can look to one of the lessons of the Cold War, a lesson that's still useful today. It's the need to think through the dynamics of crises before they happen. Who exactly is in
